Alliance Française schedule

At Alliance Française on Fridays at 8 pm

 

The Alliance Française shows its series of French films in a small room in their building at 138 Charoen Prathet Road. The building is directly opposite Wat Chaimongkhon, near the Chedi Hotel. Tell your taxi "Samakhom Frangset" and/or "Wat Chaimongkhon." A contribution of 30 baht is requested; you pay outside at the information desk of the Alliance Française proper.

 

At Alliance Française on Friday, December 25:  Holiday!  No screening.

  

At Alliance Française on Friday, January 1:  Holiday!  No screening.

  

At Alliance Française on Friday, January 8:  Le père Noël est une ordure / Santa Claus Is a Stinker(1981) by Jean-Marie Poiré – 83 mins – France, Comedy. English subtitles.

 

With Anémone, Josiane Balasko, Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Clavier, Gérard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte.

 

Félix, disguised as Father Christmas, hands out leaflets advertising a sexy Christmas party. His place is taken by an African Santa Claus and he returns to his caravan only to find his girlfriend Josette about to leave him. When he comes after her, she takes refuge at "SOS Distress", run by two neurotics, Thérèse and Pierre...

– Alliance description

 

IMDb viewer:  Great comedy!  This is the kind of movie you don't mind watching over and over again because its script is so rich, so full of wonderful dialogue and genuinely funny situations, that one view isn't enough to absorb everything. Ultimately, this is a film about the spirit of Christmas in the modern times. We live stressed and frantic lives, so why would Christmas Eve be different form a regular day? That's sort of the premise of this movie.

 

Le père Noël est une ordure is a black comedy, a very dark one, full of odd characters and bizarre situations. Themes like homosexuality, suicide, and murder aren't left behind and spice up this crazy, passionate, comedy set on Christmas Eve.

 

The performances are plain terrific, with no exception. The characters are wonderfully defined and the dialogue is delicious. It's impossible not to laugh. A lot! After a relatively calm beginning, the wacky situations start to pile up in a frenzy rhythm. Being a huge fan of black comedies myself, I prefer a more subtle approach to the themes. The humor here is sometimes histrionic, theatrical, and over-the-top. That can be easily accepted because the movie is adapted from a stage play and, in the end, it works in perfection.